Fractured Cities
Urban Violence, State Failure and Social Exclusion

As cities sprawl across Latin America, absorbing more and more of its people, crime and violence have become inescapable. Based on empirical evidence, interviews with local people and historical contextualization, the authors attempt to shed light on the fault-lines which have appeared in Latin American society.

As cities sprawl across Latin America, absorbing more and more of its people, crime and violence have become inescapable. From the paramilitary invasion of Medellin in Colombia, the booming wealth of crack dealers in Managua, Nicaragua and police corruption in Mexico City, to the glimmers of hope in Lima, this book provides a dynamic analysis of urban insecurity. Based on new empirical evidence, interviews with local people and historical contextualization, the authors attempt to shed light on the fault-lines which have appeared in Latin American society. Neoliberal economic policy, it is argued, has intensified the gulf between elites, insulated in gated estates monitored by private security firms, and the poor, who are increasingly mistrustful of state-sponsored attempts to impose order on their slums. Rather than the current trend towards government withdrawal, the situation can only be improved by co-operation between communities and police to build new networks of trust. In the end, violence and insecurity are inseparable from social justice and democracy.

Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Introduction: The Duality of Latin American Cityscapes - Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt
Chapter 1:
Fractured Cities, Second-Class Citizenship, and Urban Violence - Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt
Urban poverty, desborde popular and the erosion of the formal social order
From desborde popular to
desborde de la violencia : conceptualising exclusion, insecurity and violence
Armed actors and violence brokers
The politics of urban violence
Parallel power and perverse integration
Chapter 2:
Rio de Janeiro - Elizabeth Leeds
Introduction
Favela-Related Violence
Impact on Education
Motives for involvement in drug-trading
Police and Community - Negative Dialogues
Political-Administrative Constraints
Police Oversight and the Lack of Political Will - Costs and Consequences
Conclusions
Chapter 3:
Mexico City - Wil Pansters and Hector Castillo Berthier
Violence as fact and phantom
Metropolitan structure and security governance
Patterns and actors of insecurity and violence
Governmental and societal responses and strategies
Conclusions
Chapter 4:
Medellin - Ralph Rozema
History of urban violence in Medellin
Daily life under guerrillas and paramilitaries
A promising peace process with paramilitaries
Concluding remarks
Chapter 5:
Managua - Dennis Rodgers
Introduction
Barrio Luis Fanor Hernandez: Past and Present
Drugs, material wealth, and conspicuous consumption
Consumption, cultural exclusion, and predation
Violence and primitive accumulation
Conclusion
Chapter 6:
Caracas - Roberto Briceno-Leon
Divided Caracas
The advent of violence in Caracas
Forms of violence
Fear as an urban sentiment
The loss of the city
Democracy and violence in the city
Chapter 7:
Lima Metropolitana - Carlos Ivan Degregori and Dirk Kruijt
City of informales
New social actors and new forms of popular organisation
Low-Intensity Violence
Conclusion
Chapter 8:
Living in Fear: How the Urban Poor Perceive Violence, Fear and Insecurity - Cathy McIlwaine and Caroline O.N. Moser
The Diversity and Complexity of Violence among the Urban Poor
Urban Poor Constructions of Fear: Social Fragmentation and Spatial Restrictions
The Legitimization of Violence among the Urban Poor I:
The Emergence of Perverse Social Organizations
The Legitimization of Violence among the Urban Poor II: Inadequate State Security and Judicial Protection
Non-violent Coping: a Gendered Response
Conclusions
Epilogue: Latin America's Urban Duality Revisited - Dirk Kruijt and Kees Koonings
Bibliography
Index